Word: plotting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Mallon attempts to relieve the tedium of his stereotypical plot by creating exaggerated characters who often seem more ridiculous than humorous. Mallon's penchant for defying convention, if even in the most conventional of ways, is evident in his intentional mangling of the names of Harvard buildings. Sever Hall is reincarnated as Cleaver, and Warren House is transposed to Warble House...
...fact, Mallon says he never intended to be realistic about things. He changed building and course names to suit his plot and intentionally made his characters "cartoonish." And he says he was amused when he visited his publisher's office and saw the copy editor use a map of Harvard to assure that the characters did not cross imaginary intersections...
...results. Actors meander aimlessly through the audience, pretending not to notice a love song being performed above them. The clatter of actors fumbling with props on the upper level disrupts speech on the lower level. In the final scene, most of the dialogue crucial to the resolution of the plot cannot rise above the noise of stomping feet, as the actors chase each other all over the stage...
...amusing device, had the execution been less haphazard. Most of the costumes either add nothing in the way of characterization or worse, create an image that is incongruous with the characters. The musical interludes, which range from Billie Holiday to George Michael, are meaningless and inapproprate to the plot...
Several of the actors might have given better performances in a less complicated play. Many of the problems with plot development are the result of the deletion of some of the scenes and the condensation of some of the roles. Actor Roger Travis has to play two roles, and he does an admirable job of dashing onstage to deliver lines and offstage to change costume and character, but which part he is playing at any given moment still remains confusing...